Now that costs are coming down, will Personal Locator Beacons be the hot new accessory everyone’s got to have on everything they own?
In a bid to potentially become the new L.A. Lights, the Isaac Daniel Company is putting GPS tracking devices in just about everything, due to attack your store shelves sometime around Thanksgiving ‘08. The company has a history of tracking-device shoes for finding lost kids, as well as in medical and law-enforcement, and now they’re looking to broaden their horizons.
The shoe pictured above is their Hill model, aimed at hikers. They’re also rolling out a hunters’ boot and on-the-town shoe, although I honestly don’t know how useful that would be.
Their site’s shop is still under construction, but an article about a medical model from last year quotes sneakers at $335 a pair, with a $25 per month subscription fee — which is pretty outlandish, considering the SPOT tracker is only $169, with subscriptions of $99 a year ($150 with google maps tracking).
Then again, the SPOT probably won’t get you into a club.
Check out their web site for more info, and to see if anything else is available yet. And turn down your speakers. There’s a Good Morning America clip that starts blasting as soon as you open the page.
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Groan. These boots are going to be bought by inexperienced hikers who will now have one more excuse to charge off into the wilderness with no map, no compass and no clue. I’m new to the LA area, but I grew up hiking the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There are long lists of dead hikers at the bottom of most major trails. I’m betting these boots will cause at least as many problems as they solve.
A GPS in my boots seems rather cheesy– I prefer my Garmin 60 CSx (along with my compass and topo, thank you very much!). But I am glad to hear that PLB costs are coming down. I do some solo hiking, and I’ve been intruiged by the Spot Messenger–but I haven’t bought yet, because of reliability concerns. If you break your leg in a slot canyon, lots of luck! Are prices on 406 PLBs (no subscription fees) supposed to come down, as well?